MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury College was one of seven colleges and universities recently honored by the Environmental Protection Agency for significantly cutting food waste below previous years’ levels. The college was awarded the EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge Achievement Award.

In a statement, Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA’s New England office, said seven New England colleges are setting a great example by preventing more than 2,528 tons of food scraps from disposal by using them for higher and better uses, including food donation and composting. He said the Food Recovery Challenge Achievement Award winners are using food to feed people, not disposal facilities.

Joining Middlebury as this year’s honorees were Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Clark University in Worcester, Mass., Suffolk University in Boston, Keene State College in Keene, N.H., and the University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H.